This application relates to relatively rigid fluid barriers and methods of repairing and manufacturing the barriers by applying flexible backing material.
Gas turbine engines are known and include a plurality of distinct components. Various fluids move within a gas turbine engine, and it is desirable to provide barriers to prevent the fluids from reaching certain areas. One type of barrier is an air-oil seal, which separates an air holding chamber from an area that might hold oil. One known air-oil seal includes a relatively rigid plate fabricated from fiberglass, and perhaps other materials such as epoxy.
The rigid plate may become saturated with oil during operation. Moreover, the plate may crack and develop a plurality of small fractures, which may allow air or oil to pass through walls of the barrier. In the past, there has been no good known method to repair the barrier. As a result, entire replacement of the air-oil seal was performed to replace the defective barrier. Because the air-oil seals are relatively expensive, cheaper methods of repairing the barriers for further use would be desirable. It is also desirable to manufacture the air-oil seals that extend service life without repair.
Various methods for cleaning and performing maintenance steps on air-oil seals are disclosed in patent applications such as U.S. application Ser. No. 11/862,584, filed on Sep. 27, 2007, and titled “Pressurized Cleaning of a Turbine Engine Component,” or, alternatively, patent application Ser. No. 11/396,479, filed on Apr. 3, 2006, titled “Metallic Doubler Repair of Composite Arcuate Flanges,” which is U.S. Published Application 2007/0240819A1. Also, the last mentioned application has a related continuation-in-part application, Ser. No. 11/897,887, filed Aug. 31, 2007, which is U.S. Published Application 2008/0000193.